Helen Clark on Erin Leigh

I think most people are aware of what has happened to date.  Erin Leigh revealed that a number of Environment Ministry staff were very unhappy with David Parker “suggesting” Claire Curran be hired, as they saw it as politicising the Ministry.

Trevor Mallard then got up in Parliament and labelled Leigh sad and incompetent.

This has been refuted by numerous neutral civil servants who have in fact raved about how good she is.  Mind you, even if someone is not that good at their job, how much money would the Employment Tribunal award for a boss who gets up in public and calls her incompetent in front of the nation’s media?  Trevor is off to a good start as Minister of Labour.

Anyway the 9th floor had been pushing stories about how Trevor went off on his own, and how Clark was not happy.  So we got to hear yesterday what she though of Trevor Mallard using parliamentary privilege to destroy the career of a young former public servant.

From Hansard:

John Key: Does she condone or approve of Trevor Mallard’s savage attack, using parliamentary privilege, on *Erin Leigh when she blew the whistle on political interference at the Ministry for* the Environment?

Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: My understanding is that the Minister spoke on advice. Having read the Hansard, I consider it rather mild by his standards.

The translation is:

“The bitch should be glad Trevor didn’t punch her little face in, like he did to Tau”

I mean, seriously, does anyone other than Helen really think what Mallard did is appropriate?

It just goes to show how fake she was over Mallard needing to get his anger under control, and how she was demoting him.

Also nice to know that our Prime Minister no longer holds Minister to a high set of standards.  What is the standard she now holds them to – “by his standards”. So its official Ministers are now to be judged against the standards of Trevor Mallard.  I can safely predict none will ever fail!!